Spyker C8 Aileron Spyder at Galpin Spyker – Click above for high-res image gallery
has announced that the Dutch supercar manufacturer has completely paid for the purchase of . The purchase was split into two payments, the last of which was due on July 15, but Spyker opted to send the full $24 million to Detroit ahead of time. The builder of the says that the funds originated from internal sources, and that the company didn’t have to take on any additional debt because of the early payment.
The move is the latest in Spyker’s plan to resurrect Saab from its withered state. Recently, the company has said that it plans to broaden and firm up the Saab dealer network here in the US. At the same time, production of the C8 Aileron will ramp up as well, possibly to dovetail with the company’s plan to sell the supercar alongside standard Saab models. for the press release.
Driving a Mercedes-Benz 190SL to the Goodwood Festival of Speed – Click above for high-res image gallery
As we headed down the A 283 on our way to the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Saturday morning, my co-driver looked over at me and said, “sometimes life just deals you a flush.” He couldn’t have said it better. In this particular case, the perfect hand came in the form of a vintage 190SL loaned to us by the good people at Mercedes-Benz for our drive to the Earl of March’s estate and perhaps the most perfect weather Southern England has ever seen. We were joined by a host of other classic Benzes, including more than half a dozen 300SL coupes and convertibles driven by fellow journalists, generating quite a bit of havoc among motorists and bystanders.
Driving along the beautiful, winding country roads with the warmth of the sun on our backs and a cool breeze providing natural air conditioning, I realized that I was in the perfect car. Of course, in reality the 190SL is far from a flawless automobile. The steering is vague, the suspension easily upset, heat can radiate into the cockpit from the exhaust pipes below, and it doesn’t even have seat belts. But for that hour drive it was the perfect car. It allowed us to enjoy everything about our trip – the sights, the smells, the sounds and even the people – in a way that no other car could have. I’ve happened upon this phenomenon just a few times before, when a particular car blends with a unique situation to create something so incredibly memorable. It was an experience that I’ll likely never forget, and one that I wish upon every car enthusiast. What an incredible start to a wonderful day.
To our hearts and minds the Wagon needs nothing. That hasn’t stopped GWA Tuning from adding to the monstrous estate, and we’ll leave it to you to give thanks, or not, that they feel differently than us. The package includes a new grille and front bumper with fierce set of LED-adorned intakes beneath the ‘knees,’ new side sills and rear diffuser, plus some ducting here and there for good measure.
That’s the standard kit. If you need more, grab the entire swine and request the lowered stance on staggered wheels – 19s in front, 20s in back – body-colored GWA wheels, and the remote-controlled exhaust butterflies. And beyond that remote you wouldn’t know anything had been done, since GWA’s only modifications are aluminum pedals and illuminated door sills. The base package needs €15,000 ($18,500 U.S.) of your attention, the top flight kit needing about €22,000 ($27,200 U.S.).
Have a look at it in the gallery of high-res photos below while you think it over.
2011 GM HD Trucks – Click above for high-res image gallery
Just weeks after starting production of the new at the Flint, MI assembly plant, General Motors suspended work last Thursday to replace a defective component. Engineers found a problem with the unidentified part during routine testing and immediately found a replacement. Three shifts of and production were canceled on Thursday and Friday, but assembly is scheduled to resume on Monday morning.
Trucks that have already been built and shipped to dealers over the past four weeks will also be retrofitted before customer delivery. In July, GM will also add production of light-duty pickups at Flint.
Gallery:
Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
2011 GM HD Trucks – Click above for high-res image gallery
Usually whenever we head out to a new vehicle press launch, we have to sit through exhaustive technical and marketing presentations before we get a chance to climb behind the wheel. However, put us straight into a dual-rear wheel GMC Sierra 3500 crew-cab diesel upon our arrival in Baltimore. On the docket? A 130-mile trek from Baltimore airport to Rocky Gap Lodge in the Allegheny mountains of western Maryland with Vehicle Line Executive Rick Spina sitting shotgun.
We actually appreciated this ‘backwards’ approach, because it gave us the opportunity to develop some ‘gut’ impressions of these new trucks even before we got the attendant sales pitch. For a two-hour, mostly highway jaunt, the duallie SLT proved to be a surprisingly amiable companion, but it was just the first of seven different trucks we would drive over the next couple of days. Read on past the jump find out what GM’s new heavy duty trucks are like when sampled in a range of real-world conditions.
Gallery:
Photos by Sam Abuelsamid, Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
Silverado and GMC Sierra Heavy Duty trucks set new HD standard
2011 GM HD Truck New Technology – Click above for high-res image gallery
At first glance, the and heavy-duty pickup trucks don’t appear to have changed much compared to their 2010 counterparts. But don’t let their familiar faces fool you, because virtually all of the greasy bits have been substantially upgraded or replaced entirely. Like the competitive heavy-duty trucks from and , offers its trucks in a huge array of configurations with varying passenger, payload and towing capacities and an array of gasoline and diesel engines.
We drove seven different variants over two days in the Allegheny mountains of western Maryland along with the latest models from Dodge and Ford for comparison’s sake. While the sales volume in the heavy-duty truck segment is smaller than it was at its peak a few years ago, it is still hugely profitable and comprises about 25 to 30 percent of all pickup sales. Follow the jump to learn more about what General Motors’ truck engineering team has done to help ensure those dollars keep rolling in.
Gallery:
Live photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
2010 Gumpert Apollo – Click above for high-res image gallery
Now this is a fascinating little creature. A compound of contradictions that goes by the unlikely name of Gumpert Apollo. The first word in its name is in allegiance to Roland Gumpert, practically the father of Audi’s Quattro system – yet this creation is rear-wheel drive only. The second name is for the Greek god who had nothing to do with speed or handling prowess, and a space mission whose only intersection with cars was a lunar rover. The Gumpert Apollo’s badge, however, depicts a Griffin, a creature with the body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle; an Indian or Central Asian creation that has essentially no connection to Apollo.
Nevertheless, these ostensible discrepancies live together beautifully in the compact body of the Gumpert Apollo. The company’s aim was racing, and two driven wheels are all that are allowed in most categories. Apollo might not have been the god of driving, but he did count victory among his oversight portfolio, something the Apollo vehicle is quite familiar with. And the Apollo space missions did represent, at the time, the ultimate in proven high-technology, while the Griffin, as a mix of the kings of beasts and birds, represents mastery of land and air. We got to drive it, and we have never found anything like it anywhere else on the planet. Our chosen words to describe it are these: Hoe. Lee. Cow.
Gallery:
Photos by Jonathon Ramsey / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
Geely IG Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
Word on the web would have us believe that has its eyes set on snatching the least-expensive car crown from . The Chinese automaker has announced that it will bring its to market, and that it will cost a mere $2,250 at current conversion rates. If that’s not enough to raise your eyebrows, the company says that its pint-size econobox will be a higher-quality alternative to what’s currently rolling out of India. Granted, that’s not exactly an atmospheric quality goal, but at this price point, every little bit helps.
Expect to see a 70 horsepower, 1.0-liter engine to put power to the front wheels via a CVT gearbox when the car hits markets in China and Russia. The company hasn’t made mention of any fuel economy numbers just yet, but we have to imagine the IG can hold its own in that department.
Autocar reports that the company plans to have the IG in showrooms by 2012, and that there’s some chance that an all-electric version will crop up in both Europe and the U.S. not long after. The company is already planning to swap the gasoline engine for an electric motor with 80 horsepower and 133 lb-ft of torque. There’s no word on what we can expect in terms of top speed, but the company says the concept is capable of cruising for 93 miles on a single charge.
Say it ain’t so! How could Harley-Davidson’s main manufacturing base be anywhere but Milwaukee, Wisconsin? It would be like a Toledo without (or ), Detroit without . A Gotham without Batman. In other words, inconceivable!
But here we are anyway, with The Motor Company reporting that it is considering its options at both its powertrain operations in Milwaukee and at its Tomahawk, Wisconsin plant. Why? Simple: money. According to H-D, it could save millions of dollars per year by changing locations due to reduced costs associated with labor contracts and scheduling flexibilities. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, though, has pledged to do whatever necessary to keep Harley right where it’s at.
Of course, it seems more likely that Harley-Davidson is using these rumors as a tactic to get the upper-hand on the upcoming union negotiations. Still, with on the line, anything seems possible – up to and including the (very remote, we’d guess) threat that H-D motorcycles could be manufactured overseas. Stay tuned.
BMW Z4 GT3 on a lap of the ‘Ring – Click above to watch video
Richard Göransson of Schubert Motorsport took the around the ‘Ring, and while the thing has a glorious sound the word that kept coming to mind during the 11-minute stint was “handful.” That could have been because Göransson was trying to extract everything he could get from the car in the wet, but our suspicion is that whoever pilots this little racer is going to need steady nerves and quick hands. And don’t get us wrong about that – we’d love the chance to try it our ourselves. for the action.
Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera – Click above for a high-res image gallery
has thrown the motoring world a curve ball with a report that Sant’Agata will be leaving manual transmissions to the dinosaurs, . According to Car and Driver, the decision was part of the company’s commitment to increasing the overall fuel economy of its products – something the Raging Bull really hasn’t had to bother with in the past. In addition to scrapping the third pedal, the company says it plans to build ever-lighter exotics, which means you can bet your pants there will be even more carbon fiber in Lambo’s future line-up.
Don’t expect to see any turbocharged in the next few years, though. While automakers around the world may be strapping forced induction to their engines as a way to curb fuel consumption and maintain power, says it has no interest in playing with the extra psi. Instead, look for stop/start tech and cylinder deactivation to crop up over the next decade, as well as a mild-hybrid car and an E85-capable V10. The times? They are most definitely changing.
GiegerCars has a love affair with American cars, and a particularly strange affection for Hummers. The German tuner has created all sorts of strange variants like a , a or any number of racing-liveried Hummers like the or this .
GiegerCars’ latest creation is the Hummer H2 Bomber. The most notable modification is the addition of four Mattracks 88M1-A1 rubber tracks that replace the twenty inch wheels. The rest of the vehicle features a military designtheme as well as a roof box with lighting and a silver matte paint finish. Now all we need is a race on a snow-covered drag strip between this and I. Follow the jump for the press release from GeigerCars.
When a world-championship racing team unveils a new supercar, some inevitable questions are bound to follow. In the case of the , people want to know if the company plans on racing it. Seems like logical enough a question, especially considering that McLaren’s racing experience extends beyond Formula One, most notably the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans where a pipped the prototypes to claim overall victory.
According to McLaren chief Ron Dennis, the company is not planning their own racing campaign for the MP4. But having learned from the F1 project, which was never designed as a race car but was later adapted to the purpose following demand from racing teams, Dennis suggested that the company could offer and support competition spec versions of the car for privateer entries.
While it remains a question mark as to which series the car might be best suited, neither the FIA GT1 World Championship nor Le Mans (and its associated series around the world) would seem out of the realm of possibility. Maybe of weren’t so far-fetched after all.
We don’t know why Karl Geiger is fascinated with American performance cars, but we’re sure glad he is. The 2010 is the latest muscle car to go under the German tuner’s knife, and the results are nothing less than impressive. Thanks to a larger Whipple supercharger, larger throttle valves, upgraded fuel injection system and ported cylinder heads, the 5.4-liter V8 produces an incredible 799 horsepower and 697 pound-feet torque. Geiger claims a top speed of 220 miles per hour, but with the ’s aerodynamics we would peg that number as more theoretical than anything.
To cope with extra horsepower, Gieger has also fitted the GT500 with a three-disc carbon clutch and reinforced the six-speed transmission. Handling improvements have been made through a “racing chassis” (we’re not sure what that means), a panhard rod with polyurethane bushings and adjustable lower control arms. Finally massive 15-inch, six-piston front brakes help haul the Shelby down from inevitable high speed runs. You can see the full press release after the jump, and high-res images courtesy of Gieger can be found in the gallery below.
BMW Motorsport Z4 GT3 – Click above for high-res image gallery
Late last year we told you that would be for customers who participate in motorsports, and we now have official images of the too-hot Z4 in all of its glory. We’ve always liked the styling of the Z4-based coupes, and this GT3 spec is certainly a looker.
BMW has shoehorned the M3’s 4.0-liter V8 under the hood of the Z4 GT3, and when managed by a Type-408 ECU and Power400 control unit, the high-revving V8 cranks out a whopping 480 horsepower, and a six-speed sequential gearbox sends all of that power to the rear wheels. ABS and central-locking wheels are standard, and for consumers who want an extra touch of civilization, air conditioning is optional.
BMW will be offering the Z4 GT3 to consumers in the second half of this year, with an estimated price of around 298,000 Euro (that’s over $405,000 based on current exchange rates). Hit the jump for the official words from BMW Motorsport.
2011 Toyota RAV4 – Click above for high-res image gallery
We showed you a few of the facelifted 2011 RAV4 a couple of weeks ago, and now we have some live shots to go with them. Besides the FT-86 Concept, redesigned Auris and Prius plug-in hybrid we’re expecting at this week’s Geneva Motor Show, the Euro-spec is a pretty big deal. Looking much like the extended-wheelbase JDM Toyota Vanguard, this is likely the new nose we’ll see on the 2011 Toyota RAV4 here in the States as well.
The redesigned front fascia benefits from a new grille, more angular headlamps, foglight surrounds and a sporty front lip. We still haven’t received the press release or full details, but early reports indicate that the 2.0-liter gasoline-powered four-cylinder will be tweaked to increase fuel efficiency and decrease CO2 emissions. This particular show car features Toyota’s D-CAT clean diesel that we doubt will make it to these shores. There is even talk of a in the mix. We’ll have more details as they become available but for now, check out the image gallery below.
Bugatti Grand Sport in carbon fiber – Click above for high-res image gallery
Over the past few years has released numerous versions of its supercar, but the Grand Sport model hasn’t been out enough to get too many variations. Bugatti released the version this past summer in Monterey, but that’s about it. In addition to the the pair of , those are the only color combinations we’ve seen for the drop-top Bugatti.
That is, of course, until we hit the show floor here in Geneva. Bugatti has brought out a brand new Grand Sport finished in carbon fiber covered in clearcoat and polished aluminum. Other than the wheels, which we’re not huge fans of, the car is completely stunning to look at. If we somehow had the cash to buy and , the carbon fiber finish would be the first option we would check off. You can see all of our live photos of the car in the high-res gallery below. And try to keep the drool from puddling on your keyboard.
Unlike the great majority of things in life, the just keeps getting better and better. And then better. First came the 2007 Superleggera and it was wonderful. One year later saw the introduction of the and it’s safe to say that quite a few of us on staff here at Autoblog would choose it as our “lottery car.” Then, while we were busy losing money on Power Ball, came out with the rear-wheel-drive . And while we’re still busy picking our jaws up off the floor from that stunner, Lambo drops this lime-green bombshell in our lap.
Meet the . The numbers are stoo-pid good. Ready? 561 horsepower from the now quite familiar 5.2-liter V10, which is up from 523 hp in the 2007 model). The Superleggera also weighs just 2,954 pounds. The last Superleggera tipped the scales at (a still light) 3,153 lbs, which means the new, much more powerful car is 199 pounds lighter. In fact, it weighs 33 pounds less than a – which is nuts. How’d Lambo pull it off? Well, Superleggera means “light weight” in Italian. That being said, the weight savings mostly come from carbon fiber with the rest of the fat being trimmed off the lightweight aluminum wheels.
In person, the LP570-4 looks fantastic, especially in screaming Lamborghini green. The big visual news is the massive, -inspired front air intakes, but we like the giant rear diffuser even more. In fact, we can’t think of a single thing we don’t like about the latest fighting bull from Sant’Agata, save the not-yet-announced price tag. Which is why we’re so big on the lottery.
